06 NOV to 11 DEC
São Paulo, Brazil

COMPLEXO SISTEMA
de Enfraquecimento da Sensibilidade



Written & Directed by Ruy Filho
Original Music by Patrick Grant

Cia. de Teatro ANTRO EXPOSTO
Centro Cultural Rio Verde



More iNFO

=================================================

NOW thru NOV 9, 2008
New York, NY

EUREKA!
Based on the prose poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Buy tickets HERE


Photo credit: Jocelyn Gonzales

Photos from Eureka! HERE

Performances are on Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 4 p.m. Tickets will be $20 with a discounted ticket of $15 for students, seniors andmilitary. The production involves audience interaction, so there are no seats and each performance can only accommodate 50 people.

EUREKA!
The Living Theatre
Directed by Judith Malina
Original Music by Patrick Grant

21 Clinton Street
(Ave. B south of Houston)
New York, NY 10002
(212) 792-8050
www.livingtheatre.org

"Eureka! is a fantastic show, unlike anything I've ever experienced. Whatever I describe in this review will in no way satisfactorily replicate the wonderful experience of this production because it is defined by the audience being a part of it. Being it! This performance is not passively "watched" by its audience. It is created by the performers inviting the audience to be an active part of its creation. Although there is a structure to play, most of the specifics are defined by the audience involvement. Over the period of 75 minutes, a crowd of strangers is transformed into a dynamic group singing, dancing, and celebrating the possibilities for humanity. This is truly the Living Theatre..." - Mitchell Conway, NYTheatre.com

"The Living Theatre wants nothing less than to rewrite the theatrical contract. Viewers can no longer remain passive spectators hidden in the dark. There is no fourth wall, so they must become participants...that means helping out with a mighty task: creating the universe...There is no proscenium arch in the theater, and only a few seats lined against a wall. For the first 20 minutes or so, “Eureka!” could almost be an art installation...Then the performers guide audience members into a huddled clump, which trembles before coming apart with a loud noise. Voilà: the Big Bang...The unflappably earnest performers direct the audience members’ actions by whispers and by example...language is used minimally...and certain questions linger: How do we think about the theatrical experience when we’re participants?...But a clear point floats above the physical action: “You are the answer,” someone says. If creation is continuous, and we’re part of it, we can change things. This is where Ms. Malina’s heart seems to lie...Poe dedicated “Eureka” to the “dreamers and those who put faith in dreams.” Perhaps it’s here that his poem finds its most fertile common ground with the Living Theatre’s utopianism. - Rachel Saltz, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“...a poetic, energized exploration of the universe...the production is joyful and revivifying, thanks to the dedicated work of the youthful, convivial ensemble and the indomitable creativity of Malina.” - Ron Cohen, BACKSTAGE

"...the experience is a highly recommended antidote to the commercial calculation that mars even the fringiest modern theater nowadays." - Trav S.D., THE VILLAGE VOICE

"The legendary Living Theatre grapples with the mysteries of the universe itself in a new experimental freak-out...As is often the case in interactive theater, the varied reactions (from fervent to frightened) offer the best theater...the revelatory power of the company’s storied history shines through, such as when the group splits off into a phalanx of marching soldiers on one side and a cluster of chanting monks on the other, with the audience stranded in between...It’s an apt metaphor for our world..." - Jeff Lewonczyk, TIME OUT

"MANY shows involve audience participation, but few provide as heady a sense of empowerment as 'Eureka!' does." - Frank Sheck, NY POST

"In a chronological whirlwind of evolution set to rippling music by Patrick Grant and fantastical lighting by Gary Brackett, we are led through a maze of general evolutionary drama alongside Poe, as if traveling inside his head while he works through the problem of humanity’s existence and potential extinction." - Lyssa Mandel, NEW THEATER CORPS

The Living Theatre began its 2008-2009 season with the limited run of Judith Malina and Hanon Reznikov's Eureka!, based on an Edgar Allan Poe essay about the origin of the Universe.

The production is directed by Judith Malina and features an original score by Patrick Grant.

Published in 1847, the "Prose Poem," as Poe called it, lays out with astonishing forethought what has since come to be called the Big Bang Theory.  The Living Theatre has adapted Poe's text to a theatrical form, which will provide the audience with an awareness of participating actively in the creation of the universe and realize the parallel between the development of the elements of the cosmos and our own human development.

Eureka! was conceived and written by Hanon Reznikov when he read Poe's text - but he did not live to finish the task. Judith Malina, his collaborator and the director of the play completed the script.

The purpose of the play is to provide the audience with a sense of empowerment.  By participating in the creation of the known universe we communicate the possibility of creating a more harmonious social structure. 'Eureka!' joins nearly one hundred Living Theatre productions created since 1951, all of which seek to expand our knowledge of the universe.

The cast of Eureka! features Anthony Sisco as Edgar Allan Poe, Silas Inches as Alexander von Humboldt, Gene Ardor, Yasemin Ozumerzifon, Eric Olson, Maia Larraz, Erin Downhour, Kennedy Yanko, Enoch Wu, Katherine Nook, Isaac Scranton, Eitan Brigantonelli, and you the audience.

The Assistant Director is Brad Burgess. Set & Lighting Designer is Gary Brackett, Technical Direction is by Evan True. Choreography is by Gene Ardor.

For further information, visit www.livingtheatre.org

=================================================

APEIROPHOBIA
a fantasy concept album



Patrick Grant has signed a deal to compose and produce a fantasy concept album for children of all ages, APEIROPHOBIA, with the Australian MC Larry Trevelyan. Part contemporary hip-hop and part orchestral soundtrack, it is about a young witch who is terrified of infinity itself. She casts a spell to eradicate infinity's existence without first contemplating the consequences that follow.

More details TBA

=================================================

Sound Mixing & Designing for a Documentary on
KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS

"Kid Creole and My Coconuts" is a new documentary by producer, director and "Mama Coconut" Adriana Kaegi about the rise and fall and rise again of the 80s multicultural tropical funk machine "Kid Creole and the Coconuts" called by many "the best live band in the world."

Kid Creole and the Coconuts are an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates styles like big band jazz, disco, and in particular Caribbean/Latin American salsa. The Coconuts are a glamorous trio of female backing vocalists whose lineup has changed throughout the years. Darnell began producing for other artists before adopting the name Kid Creole (from the Elvis Presley film King Creole) in 1980, and forming The Coconuts, a trio of female backing vocalist/dancers, including his wife Adriana Kaegi, and a band including his associate vibraphone player Andy Hernandez aka Coati Mundi, who served as co-leader as well as musical director and arranger.

One of their standout works was Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places, a concept album matched with a New York Public Theatre stage production; it received rave reviews, and Darnell was recognized as a clever lyricist and astute composer, arranger and producer.

The documentary features concert footage, never-before-seen home movies, and a new interview/commentary with producer and ex-coconut Kaegi with "The Punk Professor" Vivien Goldman. The movie is edited by Peter Shelton.

For more iNFO, go to the "Kid Creole and My Coconuts" documentary's official web site HERE.

=================================================

A Collaboration with
Nigerian Musicians



Ogunyemi "Titus" Oladimeji, a violist from Lagos, Nigeria (pictured above on the left), has initiated a project with Patrick Grant for string quartet. Titus and musicians have been recording and collecting local songs from their region and are presenting them to PG as the musical material from which new compositions will be written. This group has presented the African premieres of other works by Grant in 2007, amongst them Hip-Hop Experience and are currently working on Children at War (see below) and a quartet arrangement of Three Choral Pieces in Latin.

More details TBA

=================================================

www.strangemusic.com